The present invention relates to a ski boot closure system.
Ski boots equipped with quick-closing lever and associated rack systems are already known. They have been successively used for front-opening ski boots and rear-opening ski boots. In all cases, these systems involve the bringing together of two parts of the boot. Generally speaking, these quick fasteners include a number of notches and/or a screw-and-nut adjusting system permitting adjustment of the tension exerted between the two flaps of the ski boot. During actual skiing, this tension is often great; when not skiing, the skier frequently wishes to loosen the buckles in order to walk or to stand normally in the lift waiting line. To this end, the quick fastener or buckle must be equipped with a system allowing the boot to be slightly loosened, but holding the foot sufficiently in the boot to prevent it from accidentally slipping out, or too great of a relative foot movement inside the boot while walking. This walking position should be stable, i.e., the buckle should not be able to accidentally open or close.
It is also necessary that the buckle be equipped with a system permitting the buckle adjustment to be maintained, to avoid the need for readjustment of buckle tension. A number of solutions to this problem have already been proposed. These solutions fall into two catagories, depending on whether the buckle parts, respectively fastened to each of the boot flaps, offer -- or do not offer -- the possibility of separating the buckle from the flaps, or the buckle parts from one another.
The solutions of the first category do not permit total boot opening. This is a serious disadvantage, particularly in the case of rear-opening boots, which require an ample rotation of the rear part of the boot.
The solutions within the second category permit full buckle opening, but this requires that the boot-flaps be manually closed again, at least slightly. Buckle opening thus requires the use of both hands.
Moreover, there is a danger of the two buckle parts opening accidentally, particularly while walking, when the buckle is not under tension, thereby eliminating any pressure holding the foot in the boot.